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Nordic Case Info
  • Case ID: 303771
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Utilize external flash with nrf9160 SiP on Custom board.

Replay

Hi,

I would like to use the external flash to increase the internal flash, no intention, at the moment, to use it for MCUBoot file or FOTA .

How do I configure it, if it is even possible.

Info:

- nRF Connect SDK: 2.0.0

- nrf9160 SiP on custom board.

- Flash commuincate over SPI.

- Flash is working.

Thanks in advance.

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  • 0

    Hi,

    Yes, this is possible.

    On our nRF9160DK, we have an external flash, and you can see a sample for testing this at nRF9160: HTTP application update using the nRF9160DK's external flash.
    This sample is for v1.7.0, but it is possible to do the same for v2.0.0.

    Regards,
    Sigurd Hellesvik

  • 0 in reply to Sigurd Hellesvik

    Thank you.

    After setting up the external flash in the .overlay file:

    nordic,pm-ext-flash = &mx25r16;
    It builds fine but when running the program this is what I get:
    When getting the partition_manager_report:
    external_flash (0x200000 - 2048kB):
+---------------------------------------------+
| 0x0: mcuboot_secondary (0xe8000 - 928kB) |
| 0xe8000: external_flash (0x118000 - 1120kB) |
+---------------------------------------------+

flash_primary (0x100000 - 1024kB):
+--------------------------------------------------+
| 0x0: mcuboot (0xc000 - 48kB) |
| 0xc000: EMPTY_0 (0x4000 - 16kB) |
+---0x10000: mcuboot_primary (0xe8000 - 928kB)-----+
+---0x10000: tfm_secure (0xc200 - 48kB)------------+
| 0x10000: mcuboot_pad (0x200 - 512B) |
+---0x10200: mcuboot_primary_app (0xe7e00 - 927kB)-+
| 0x10200: tfm (0xc000 - 48kB) |
+---0x1c200: tfm_nonsecure (0xdbe00 - 879kB)-------+
| 0x1c200: app (0xdbe00 - 879kB) |
+---0xf8000: nonsecure_storage (0x2000 - 8kB)------+
| 0xf8000: settings_storage (0x2000 - 8kB) |
+--------------------------------------------------+
| 0xfa000: EMPTY_1 (0x6000 - 24kB) |
+--------------------------------------------------+

otp (0x2f4 - 756B):
+------------------------------+
| 0xff8108: otp (0x2f4 - 756B) |
+------------------------------+

sram_primary (0x40000 - 256kB):
+--------------------------------------------------+
+---0x20000000: sram_secure (0x10000 - 64kB)-------+
| 0x20000000: tfm_sram (0x10000 - 64kB) |
+---0x20010000: sram_nonsecure (0x30000 - 192kB)---+
+---0x20010000: nrf_modem_lib_sram (0x44e8 - 17kB)-+
| 0x20010000: nrf_modem_lib_ctrl (0x4e8 - 1kB) |
| 0x200104e8: nrf_modem_lib_tx (0x2000 - 8kB) |
| 0x200124e8: nrf_modem_lib_rx (0x2000 - 8kB) |
+--------------------------------------------------+
| 0x200144e8: sram_primary (0x2bb18 - 174kB) |
+--------------------------------------------------+
    When I tried to add this to the .prj file:
    CONFIG_PM_EXTERNAL_FLASH_MCUBOOT_SECONDARY=n
    This works as expected.
    My question is now; Is it possible to utilize the external flash compile time?
    The HTTP sample uses it run time, correct me if I'm wrong on that.
    Another question is: the external flash do not have the correct size, even though I have added the size to the spi setup in the .overlay file. Do I need to add a pm_static.yml for getting the correct sized configured?
  • 0 in reply to Sigurd Hellesvik
    Sigurd Hellesvik said:
    Try to fill the whole external flash with partitions.

    How do I fill the external flash with partitions?

    The external flash I use is: MX25R1635F.

  • 0 in reply to Replay

    If the total size is 0x200000, try this

    external_flash:
  address: 0x0
  end_address: 0x1000000
  region: external_flash
  size: 0x1000000
empty_placeholder_partition:
  address: 0x1000000
  end_address: 0x2000000
  region: external_flash
  size: 0x1000000

    Regards,
    Sigurd Hellesvik

  • 0 in reply to Sigurd Hellesvik

    I still get the same build error.

    I cannot increase the size of the external flash to more than 0x200000. 

  • 0 in reply to Replay

    That number is in decimal. 2097152 = 0x200000

    In my below sample I think I have too many Zeros.

    Try to change it to use 100 000 and 200 000 instead.

    Regards,
    Sigurd Hellesvik

  • 0 in reply to Sigurd Hellesvik

    Okay, I have misunderstood the purpose of the pm_static.yml file.

    Everything is building fine now and the partition_manager_report makes sense to me.

    But now I'm back to:

     

    I have been following along with this thread:  RE: MCUBoot, Zephyr, and static partition manager 

    There is a difference, I get an ERROR: Image in the primary slot is not valid! - So maybe there is an another problem.

    Hope you can help. 

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